I'm going to split my final reflection between talking about Barack Obama’s cabinet picks and the simulation. So, first the cabinet picks. President elect Obama has chosen many positions in his cabinet. So far he is establishing one of the smartest and best qualified cabinets in history. A few good examples of the brains and experience Obama is surrounding himself with is putting retired Marine General Jim Jones as National Security Advisor, Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and Robert Gates in as defense secretary. Now a little information about each person and why I believe that they are qualified for their respective positions. Jim Jones was supreme allied commander of NATO in Europe. In this position he would have been exposed to and have had to deal with many security issues. So since he already has experience in the security area he is a good choice during this heightened time of national security. Hillary Clinton is a great pick for secretary of state. She herself has good international experience as well as having the advantage of being involved during her husband’s administration. During this time of the US slump in world opinion, we need our chief foreign official to be experienced. Finally, Robert Gates who has been secretary of defense for half of the Bush administration. It is a great decision to have him stay on as secretary. He has been one of the main people managing the Iraq war and is very experienced in the conflict. As the US is deeply entrenched in Iraq, like it or not we’re there, this would be no time to bring a new person who doesn’t have the background knowledge into the job of managing the war.
In the simulation I was part of the group that represented Venezuela. I and the other members of this group knew that it would be very hard to impossible to get anybody to vote in agreement on any issues with us. It turned out that as the debated came around that we were right, no one agreed. Our main argument for our disagreement was that we felt the issues presented were encroaching on our sovereignty. So in the end Venezuela was thrown out of the conference because of our inability to agree or even compromise. I thought that this was a really good simulation. It thought me how to represent and debate issues from the standpoint of a country that I don’t agree with.
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2 comments:
Haha, I think you guys did a pretty good job defending lonely Venezuela.
I guess that I am happy about a Hilary pick...I am a little conflicted. I have never been a fan (she is a bit of a moderate in my opinion), but she does have some experience and will further unify the democratic party...which I suppose is good. I don't know...we shall see.
I also felt sorry for Venezuela since they are symbolized as a dictatorship hosted by Chavez. If the nations would put their current government aside, you find that Venezuela is trying to operate an oil-based economy while maintaining socialist policies for the benefit of their people.
On the subject of Obama's choices for cabinet, he is acting like Frankin Roosevelt because both of them are wasting no time in assembling a team to crack down on this recession. This is the candidate I appreciate: instead of partying after winning the nomination as our last president did (twice), Obama gets to work. As for Hillary its good for her to be an adviser since she and Bill revived the economy during the Clinton administration but its best to keep an eye on her.
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